scent of smoke
by aikotters
Summary: They are kept together by the thread of the fire god. Or maybe its will. Whatever it is, they will not be separated again. Digimon!AU Reincarnation. Up now: Yoriichi
1. Ring

Warnings: Death, abuse, violence, spoilers.

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1 - Ring

There had never been a wedding day in Kocho Kanae's future.

And now, this time, she has a ring and it's all hers, but all it does is cause her pain. It clangs against her brain when she hits a stair incorrectly, when her eyes swell up and it brushes the bruised skin beneath her fur.

She imagines Shinobu's outspoken fury, her gentle fingers carding over each bruise with paste, each cut with gauze, her voice clear and ringing her dislike and _this is why you get hurt, Nee-san._

Kanao isn't like that, but she's soft and curious and when she'd died gods when she'd died she'd been stuck with a coin and yes it had worked but at what cost?

But even in this tiny body that wasn't human, even if the person she's waiting for is just a pipe dream, she is comforted by the fact that her sisters must be alive, must be happy, must be somewhere that isn't here.

That has to be the truth.

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**_A/N:_** Really, I don't think anyone was surprised about this. Happy inktober everyone!


	2. Mindless

Warnings: Anxiety

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2 - Mindless

Anxiety doesn't have a thought process in particular.

It has a sense, but not a thread or a line or a sound barring the heartbeat it steals from other people and important things.

Before, Zenitsu wouldn't have known the word anxiety, never mind what it meant. He knew what fear was, and dread but having this diagnosis, this awareness was new.

Course, he thinks through his glasses and sweaters and things, that doesn't make it any easier. He can scream a lot less. Weaker body and all.

Still. Anxiety doesn't think but ignoring it helps him try to.

It'd be easier if he wasn't alone.


	3. Bait

Warnings: Past murder and abuse and violence, current divorce

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3 - Bait

Rui had followed his parents expecting hell and now he's starting to think he got much worse. Too many years being frail, then strong has left him clumsy, unprepared to live with human power.

He's too used to being able to do what he likes, what he wants that he says things to this mother without thinking about it.

And then he loses his brother.

Well not loses, he's still alive. But he's not with him and it aches to lack him and the father who is also as clumsy.

They aren't the same parents, Rui knows. But they love him more than they should if they knew what he had done before.

He vows to himself to never tell them, and let that be enough for him, if nothing else. Let him bask in love he may not deserve again, just this once.


	4. Freeze

4 - Freeze

Inosuke's just not the thinking type.

He was raised by boars before, in comparison, Yukidarumon is a genius. Firm and loving and kind, the mother he'd wanted when he'd remembered he'd had one. The one he'd thought Shinobu was. But that had been wrong.

He is going to enjoy this.

But then she dies. Then she dies. Then they kill her.

They'll pay, they'll pay, they'll all suffer and die and pay underneath his weapons.

If only one of them was a sword. Things would go much faster.

Well, he has Falcomon. That'll have to do. He can't wait to eat the bastards.

Humans. Feh. As long as they're not demons it doesn't mean shit. His minions aren't here. But he'll find them. They'll understand. They usually did.


	5. Build

5 - Build

Kyoujiro doesn't like education in this life.

He'd been blessed with it before of course, and this sheer amount of knowledge is a treasure trove of possibility! He could use it to grasp his situation. But they deliver it so dryly. It's like they've forgotten childhood! How unacceptable!

Still, he lingers in it. He has a friend now, and she's so quiet these days, after the death of-

Well, neither of them bring it up! But he understands! Still, he will shoulder on. He is still a good man by his mother's word, even if he must grow into it a second time.

Perhaps Tanjiro is even willing to be his tsuguko properly now.


	6. Husky

6\. Husky

Genya wonders about Sanemi. If he'd lived long, or if he'd died there. He doesn't remember much of that time. He doesn't remember much of, well, anything. Everything had gotten so red after a while. It had been hard to think. But now it's peaceful. Or as peaceful as this world could ever be. Sure, he only has his mother now, but this mother isn't trying to kill him. This mom is trying to live herself day by day and make things good for them.

But Genya is not the kind of girl she wants. Too roughshod, too violent, too… used to battle.

Even in the vaguest way, fighting is what Genya knows best.

But grandma understands. Maybe she had to fight too, once.

It'd be nice to have a comrade to fight with. Though Genya would never say that aloud.


	7. Enchanted

7 - Enchanted

Kanao dances in the light of the moon.

It's soothing, familiar. It's not a choice, but a duty, an obligation from... something. She can't determine what. So she dances with the flowers under the moon and thinks and dreams and mourns.

For she had lived long, so long for her time. And loved. So why is she back again?

Are they here? Is Tanjiro here?

Somehow… Kanao is excited.

For what, she can't say. For who, she's not sure, there are so many. But it sounds a lot less lonely over dancing here with only her family and the dog for company.

This life is so much better, she's sure.


	8. Frail

8 - Frail

This body is weak.

Shinobu would curse it but a part of her is unsurprised. She has to be hindered in some way, somehow. The universe would tremble otherwise. Or fall apart. She has to have some flaws after all.

Her mind is sharp. She doesn't need to wield it like a sword anymore. Though she will, of course. THere were weaknesses to exploit, battles to fight. And she was proud to be able to do it.

She certainly wouldn't ask her _brother_ to do it. The old blood advises her not to. He'll figure it out.

Tanjiro is kind, not stupid, after all.


	9. Swing

9 - Swing

Muichiro, years and decades and eternities later, still finds comfort in the hilt of the sword.

Even if this one is made of wood, it's not for people's heads and he's worn down with more armor than he needs, this sword remains an extension of his arms and legs and he enjoys it more the longer his grandfather goes on. He seems pleased. The whole family seems pleased.

There's something to be glad for.

He just misses his brother. You'd think he'd be here by now.


	10. Pattern

10 - Pattern

For once he is the older one. Giyuu isn't sure if it means a trend or if he's just properly paranoid.

His sister tells him gently that it's the latter, as she struggles to run. As she coughs and hacks every time she steps for too long.

Wheelchairs are nice though, he freely admits, even if only to himself. The progress of technology would have been beneficial to Oyakata-sama.

He wonders where he is, where Tanjiro is, where everyone is.

Is Sabito here?

He hopes. This giant house is lonely with only one person to love him in, after all.


	11. Snow

11 - Snow

Makomo sits and waits. Not because she wants to or has to, but because Urokodaki-san - sorry, _Suedo-san _had promised he'd only be a minute or two more. So she waited. Sabito was somewhere, somewhere she didn't know. But she would find him soon enough. After all, he missed their favorite teacher as much as she did.

When he admitted it.

The flowers at her table fell like snow beside her. Her own helplessness is heavier than it should be, but no one scolds her. Only this new brother who looks familiar, only this vague person who she doesn't… quite, see? Or sees too much of. She's not sure yet and all of it is tiring. Every bit of it is, really.

Suedo-san returns, that strange smile on his face. But perhaps Urokodaki-san simply broke without his students to hold him there.

That was fine. She could put him back together now.


	12. Dragon

12 - Dragon

Tanjiro loves the warmth of his blankets. Not the heat, but the warmth of the tiny family he has now who bundle him up in the blankets, he and a sister who is not Nezuko (she's too clever and playful and solemn, smiling like he's still so much younger than she, she's not fooling him _at all_) but loves him all the same, spending long nights and long days together.

In this life, Tanjiro has no doubts. He misses his friends, but they're around. His sense of smell is strong still, and he knows his loved ones even a thousand kilometers away.

Everyone will get together again and this time, it will be a happy life, and a happy time.

Memories or no memories. Not even that move could stop them.

It's just only a matter of time.


	13. Ash

13 - Ash

There's nothing beautiful about the smell of things burning. Even if it's just bread or spices or anything, Senjuro trembles as if in a dream.

He knows, however, that it's not a dream. He can open his eyes and not imagine the smell of death, but rather the smell of failed bread and the sound of his mother chiding him for not watching carefully, even though he had not looked away.

Despite a new life, it really did seem as if nothing had changed. But! His brother is out there somewhere and he wants to meet him, to smile at him, to show him.

Show him he's not just weak anymore, he's all sorts of things to be proud of.

Of course, Kyoujiro would be proud anyway. He always had been.


	14. Overgrown

14 - Overgrown

Aoi makes do. Aoi is given everything in this life. Everything and more. Parents that aren't eaten. A nice home that she can decorate. Friends that are interested in her words. Power. Authority, safety.

She is allowed to be afraid.

Yet it is incomplete. There is no purpose to it. She is just existing, just living. And despite having three friends who follow her around (her friends before, she hopes she hopes), and a world of exciting things, Aoi cannot help but dislike herself.

Or dislike this missing piece of her life. It needs to be filled. Somehow. Someday. She will find out.


	15. Legend

15 - Legend

Yoriichi was a calmer man before, and being one again only aches something deep in him. It's fine to be calm, to strategize, to think, to be strong, to be so many things, for so many people. It had been a curse once, it is not now.

He had been calm and failed before. He had been empty and failed before. He had been willing to sacrifice everything before and still failed. He had held something in his hands and failed before.

He did not want that to happen so easily this time.

Sometimes, yes, everything would slip through his fingers. He did not have as strong a grip as necessary.

But.

He would do his best and hold on tightly, to the dance and to the song.


	16. Medicinal

16 - Medicinal

Growing old had never been in her future.

Growing old had never been her plan.

But here she is, living again.

Tamayo wonders when hell got so full it called her back out to make up for it. But here she is, with her dear friend, the boy she'd turned, a small thing at her side, a crybaby to counteract his coldheartedness.

Ah well. This is all she can do now, grow up again. It's not lonely this time. It's better. This time he won't be able to turn her into a monster. No one can be a monster ever again.


	17. Airborne

17 - Airborne

Her name was like the sky.

In this world she's supposed to be free, have choices, to soar overhead. She does not have multiple children to feed. She does not have to watch them work their fingers to the bone and yet and yet -

Her mother dictates her choices like before. Or well, she certainly tries. She defies in every little way she can and it hurts, it stings, her own children would never - but they were good and dutiful. She could never imagine them doing such in a world where every wrong choice meant death.

That just wasn't the case here.

Her mother just didn't understand, Kie mused.


	18. Flurry

18 - Flurry

There is someone he wants to protect.

Mother yes, the girl he loves yes, his sister yes. He can do that with these fists. He can make something with these fists. He make a safer world with these fists.

Akaza has much to repent for, he knows, but the thrill of combat, the chase of life is still boiling within him.

So admittedly, he does use this opportunity to go out and fight. It lets his sister walk to school safely, his mother sleep easier. There is no Father here to keep them safe. So he will do it. He is young to this world but he will do it.

He is behind by his own making.


	19. Dark

19 - Dark

Being alone with his mother is refreshing.

Mainly because there's nothing that can go wrong, and the way she cares for Obanai is… normal. No fattening up for a snake demon, though she works a little too hard. There's no men in this world either. Or no, not in this world, in her life. And here it actually seems to be a problem.

He misses Mitsuri. She'd make it easier. Mother always looks tired. He always has to help her. It feels like they were abandoned. Again.

Only this time, it isn't his fault.

At least, he hopes it isn't.

He prays it isn't.


	20. Multitude

20 - Multitude

Being the youngest sibling is new.

Mitsuri minds… a little. It's nice not to be the center of attention, but it's frustrating sometimes to be left behind because she is no longer strong, or pretty or proud. But she is loved and she can eat what she likes and she is happy.

Big siblings means she knows life in all stages again before she's lived them and it's so cool and so different that she needs all the help she can get.

Sometimes she gets the scraps, but those scraps are better than anything she'd eaten that wasn't homemade, and there's plenty.

She misses Obanai. He would find them funny. Maybe he'd understand it.

She is happy that they'd won and that there are no demons here.

She hopes there aren't anyway.


End file.
